ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the fictional tools employed in the first version of Quincas Borba, the implications of which have not been systematically considered in any study of the variants in the novel. It aims to learn how the text is organized in order to highlight, if possible, the points at which Machado de Assis's narrative vision of Quincas Borba comes into conflict with the serialized mode of publication. Rubiao receives confirmation of Quincas Borba's madness through the former device, while it is through a newspaper that news of the philosopher's death reaches Barbacena. While eliminating the melodramatic, the novelist focuses on the process of Rubiao losing his mind by extending and increasing the focus on the character's matrimonial delirium. Moreover, people have possibly identified the first reader of Quincas Borba: Alfredo Leite, together with the other typographers who may have taken turns in that role during the five years in which the novel was published.
